Fire the coach. Time for a change...everyone has a shelf life and AV's is up. If that doesn't work, fire the GM (he has been lousy for us) and hire someone to take the Canucks through the post Sedin era. It could be here sooner than we all think.

Making a trade won't solve anything, when was the last time in the AV era has a player come in via trade and made a significant difference to the team? A new player or new players will spend a month learning AV's system and be delegated to 3rd or 4th line minutes until they get it. By that time, the season is over and everyone can blame injuries (again) or the refs (again) or the starting goalie (again) or the lack of playing time for the backup (again), or the lack of a 3rd line center (again) or the lack of a RHS on the blueline (again) or the travel schedule (again) or say the team lost to a better team (again)....

Last edited by vic on Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Uncle dans leg wrote:Seriously though...WTF? We surely are on a huge skid and I have no doubt the roster needs a boost but writing this team off now is ridiculous. -This is the same core that has dominated the league for 3+ years. -They have enjoyed all kinds of success, both regular season and playoffs. -They have 3 and a half(Jennings) major trophy winners in the line up who have underachieved since that all-too-famous redemption game (Boston Jan/12).-They can beat anyone when on their game but unfortunately lose to anyone when off.

This is still a very strong team wearing Canucks colours and every single last team we play knows this.

In my opinion what's needed is an infusion of dynamic energy to the top 6 and a puck moving d-man who can run the PP and settle things down from the point. 2 players that come to mind for me are Mike Ribiero in Washington and Brian Campbell in FLA.

MR is on fire on a team who is down in the standings. He's headed to UFA after this year so might be available if they fall out of the running before Apr 2. His energy, skill and swagger would be more than welcome on this team.

BC has a huge sticker price but a swap of RL for him could have instant benefits all over the ice. He has 3 more years(I think) left on his contract but this is a legitimate #1 d-man who makes everbody on the team better. He ran a helluva good PP last year which featured setting up Jason Garrisons one timers. FLA could be interested in this kind of deal for Luongo I suspect and I bet including Booth in the swap isn't out of the question.

These trades would definitely improve the roster but I'm not sure how we could fit them under the cap. Gillman has proven to be a superstar when it comes to weaseling room out of a loaded roster so I have faith he can pull it off. Obviously we would be unloading Ballard and maybe even Booth for cap space but if this team is going to make a serious push for the cup while the Sedins are still able to play at a high level, this is the kind of changes I feel we will need to make.

Who knows what kind of personnel moves are available this season. With the shortened season, the artificial parity, etc.. I don't see there being too many fire sales going on around the league this year - right now we're more or less at the halfway point, 25/30 teams are in a playoff spot or within five points.. 28 of 30 are within 7 and 29 of 30 are within seven points of a playoff spot or are on the record saying they refuse to rebuild (Calgary).

Other than that you have Florida, and I don't see a ton of NHL talent on that roster that makes sense for this team.

Maybe there's a hockey trade to be made out there, in which case you're talking about moving a Booth, Ballard, Hansen, Higgins, Raymond, or mayyybe a Tanev or Schroeder. I don't know, haven't seen to many of those around the league thusfar.

Then there is a goaltender trade. I maintain we're not going to see that (unless someone else out there gets truly desperate) before the offseason.

So, if we're talking about making a big move with this team, firing the coach might be the way to go. I don't know if it's the right move but this group is absolutely underachieving and whether it's the gameplan or the execution you can have some reason to believe replacing the voice in the room will address either problem.

That being said - I doubt Scott Arniel is the coach of the future for this franchise, so you are either going to have an interim coach the rest of the way or you've got to hire your replacement away from his current team.. or take a cast off like Lindy Ruff (or Mike Keenan? ). There's no Dan Bylsma for this team right now.

That being said, I think his team has to get healthy to right the ship at this point. You can fire the coach but we still have just Henrik down the middle.. getting (and keeping) Ryan Kesler in the lineup covers up a lot of warts on players like Jordan Schroeder and Max Lapierre.

Uncle dans leg wrote:...In my opinion what's needed is an infusion of dynamic energy to the top 6 and a puck moving d-man who can run the PP and settle things down from the point. 2 players that come to mind for me are Mike Ribiero in Washington and Brian Campbell in FLA.

...Thoughts?

These guys would LOVE playing for AV....

Ribiero:Flaws: Still needs work in the defensive zone. Lacks bulk and is undersized by NHL standards. Good in shootouts, he isn't much of a goal-scorer during game action; he prefers to pass instead of shooting a bit too often.http://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hoc ... r.php?1304

Campbell:Flaws: Can get knocked off the puck a bit too easily at the National Hockey Level level. His work in the defensive zone, and without the puck in general, isn't stellar by any means. Isn't a consistent hitter, eitherhttp://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hoc ... r.cgi?1206

Both have played for some pretty darn defensively responsible teams (Ribeiro in Montreal, Campbell in Chicago) with a reasonable degree of success..

edit:

That being said the acquisition cost would be ridiculous. The Caps gave up Cody Eakin and a 2nd for him without even knowing if he'd suit up for them due to the lockout.. if they wanted to recoup their cost we'd be talking about Jordan Schroeder and a 2nd or maybe even a 1st if there's another team out there looking for a proven scoring center (there are usually a handful).

Then there's Brian Campbell, we'd have to make room for his enormous cap hit on the blueline anyway, so what the hell - Alex Edler for Campbell? Do the Panthers do that, would they throw in a third liner on an expiring contract or something? If they don't get a legit defenseman in a Campbell deal they'll be picking in the top five next year, too..

Last edited by dbr on Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with the notion we need two serious upgrades. A top six with energy as long as he is a centre. And ya, we miss a PP quarterback out there. Gotta be right handed shot though.

Ribeiro fits the bill for the top six forward.

Campbell is a left shot but did have chemistry with Garrison.

MG just seems stubborn to me. But he had better do something because we could be out of a playoff spot in another week if we keep playing the way we are. On paper we have too much talent to be playing this way but there does not seem to be a "system" anymore. And that is on coaching.